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Sunday, 5 July 2015

St John’ Wort is my
ultimate summer herb. The date when my first yellow starflower opens tells me
how the season fares. This year is was 21st June, Midsummer’s Day,
so although the winter was long and spring cold and late, the plants are
progressing as normal. When the last seed forms in late September I know summer
is over and world is turning once more.

St John’s wort was once of
the first herbs I grew. Everyone talked and wrote about it, embodying it with
an air of mystery. It was deemed to be very powerful, copying the
pharmaceutical drugs which tackled mild to moderate depression. There was also
talk of it being used to treat burns arising from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. How could a herb
have such widespread action?

I knew the active part of the plant was the flower and the tiny,
perforated leaves which gave it its name “perforatum”. If you couldn’t see
light coming through the tiny holes, then the plant would not be particularly
active (much to the dismay of those with ornamental hypericums growing in their
gardens!).

My first products were the flowers infused in sunflower oil on my
kitchen windowsill. Christopher Hedley taught me to use a light oil since the
plant was delicate, but I know others prefer olive oil if they are looking for
something which penetrates the skin more easily and has medicinal effects of
its own. I leave it alone all summer, adding to the jars every day or so and
topping them up as needed until I have enough oil for the coming year.

One year I put a lid on the jar, thinking to deter insects but was
taught a salutary lesson when I discovered mould growing on the top. Fresh
plant material contains water and if you don’t allow it to evaporate you are
likely to grow something you don’t want. Now, if I were to bother with a cover,
I’d fashion something out of paper or cotton.

The development of St John’s
Wort oil is an amazing spectacle. After only two days the oil begins to change
colour and by the end of one or two weeks, the familiar crimson oil emerges. It
must have sunlight to effect the change. If you stick your jar of oil in a dark
cupboard for several weeks, it will remain yellow. (Ask me how I know!)

The oil can be used in so many different ways.

As a
sunscreen

For
general burn healing

With honey
and calendula as a poultice for burns

For
massage involving any kind of nerve pain

In a salve
with calendula and chickweed for hot, infected eczema

With
meadowsweet for anti-inflammatory pain such as arthritis

With
agrimony for pain involving constriction

As a cream
with marshmallow, calendula and aloe vera to prevent diabetic foot
problems

The second product I made was a tincture but macerating the flowers in
vodka for three weeks in a dark place. The red colouration begins to leach out
after several hours.

The tincture had me in a quandary. I don’t like to give herbs to
anyone with a serious mental health problem, especially if they are under the
care of professionals and may be taking other psychotropic drugs. St John’s Wort has a
tendency to exacerbate the side effects of any other medication, which is not
something to be recommended.

St John’s Wort is also one of
the few drugs to have been extensively “researched”, although the trials are
rarely with the whole plant, only with those aspects which have been extracted
and standardised. Hence the long list of contra-indications and warnings which
the press are so pleased to report. If you do want to educate yourself about
these reports, there are lots of references in medical journals.

Like the SSRI drugs, St
John’s Wort doesn’t act immediately. You need to build
up a concentration in the body before you start to notice changes. Henriette
Kress described it, “You won’t notice any difference when you take it but the
people around you will notice you are different.”

It was Henriette who gave me the confidence to start adding St John’s Wort to my
bereavement tonics. All the herbs are nerviness and help to support the adrenal
gland during times of stress. I use SJW with lemon balm, vervain and nettles in
the early stages of bereavement and may continue to add it to the mix or leave
it out in favour of oats and/or motherwort, depending on the person. I also
give people skullcap or rose elixir in separate bottles to take as and when the
screaming habdabs descend.

David Winston also reported success with a mixture of SJW and lemon
balm for seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This could be easily combined using
tinctures but I have also made a syrup with extra lemons which proved far too
delicious to be a medicine!

After several years of making oils and tinctures, I began to dry the
herb for teas. A former apprentice reported great success in removing the pain
of diabetic foot neuropathy in Asian elders by administering the tea as a
footbath. This could also be used with any hand problems.

My next experiment was with honey. SJW flowers in honey produces a
pink honey with the characteristic SJW smell. You could use this in any drink
as an added medicine to a herbal infusion. I’m now waiting for the evening
primrose and bergamot to flower to make a “burns honey” together with
apothecary’s rose petals. Having just treated a nasty burn on my leg, I want to
be sure I’ve got a specific honey available just in case.

Every year I give away dozens of self seeded SJW plants. I believe
every herb lover needs an SJW patch in their garden. I know I would be lost
without mine.

I'll finish with a meditation I undertook recently with St John's Wort. This is what he said.

I am the sun and starsI am strongI travel along unseen pathwaysI hide my scentYou will only know it if you work with me.The more you work with me the less you will understand meI comfort the vulnerableDo not think to offer me on my ownI am not here to work your miraclesYou will not notice how I change you until the change is pastOffer me humbly to your eldersOn your knees let them bathe their feet in my watersI will take away their pain, soothe the burningI am strong